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    Category Archives: OLPC

    OLPC has launched the revolution

    April 25, 2008 – 10:23 pm

    OLPC has succeeded in forcing Microsoft to lower the licencing price of Windows XP to $3, OLPC has succeeded in forcing Microsoft to slim down the hardware, storage requirements of running Windows XP, OLPC has succeeded in getting the whole laptop industry to start building what they call XO competitors out of their desperation of the prospect of loosing all of their profit margins, OLPC has succeeded in forcing Intel to speed up the release of the Atom Centrino processor to compete with AMD Geode as a low power fanless CPU.

    Hey, what’s wrong with Microsoft continuing to invest multi-billions of dollars to push and promote their Windows XP alternative to Sugar Linux, why is that bad? At the end Microsoft will be forced to provide an open source version of Windows XP or perhaps Microsoft will even be forced to develop software based on Linux and the goal of OLPC will be completely reached.

    I know OLPC is not a laptop project but it is. I’d like to see the XO in a commercial version sold in my local supermarket within the next few months for $200 each. OLPC needs to commercialize the product in partnership with whomever brands and distributors who would like to take care of the commercial mass market distribution. This way, the whole industry will have to speed up even faster and reach the result of the $100 laptop that works for 24h on a battery in sunlight and connects to broadband wireless internet for free everywhere.

    By Charbax | Comments (0)

    More facts about Intel vs OLPC

    January 16, 2008 – 6:32 pm

    Truth is Intel makes huge profits the way the industry works today and does not want things to change. Intel management feel that their established business model domination is extremely threatened by a small open-source hardware and software project like the OLPC project.

    Fact is Intel does not have a processor that consumes as little power and costs as little as the AMD Geode processor.

    Fact is Intel does not want the market to embrace $200 laptops. Intel would loose all sales of Dual Core High-K metal gate quadro core processors if most new laptops only will have 400mhz fanless ultra low voltage, since most people in fact don’t need more processing power to browse the Internet and access all their unbloated Web Apps and other most basic apps on the laptop.

    Fact is Intel wants the business model of big margins on expensive hardware to continue to be the defacto mainstream standard for when people need to upgrade their computers. Fact is Intel is not present in any of the low cost new solutions coming out such as the VIA based $199 Shuttle and Zonbu desktop computers or the $150 OLPC laptop.

    Fact is the Intel Classmate brings absolutely nothing to improve education nor improve battery life or lower the cost of laptops. The Classmate is designed to fail. Intel does not want to mass produce cheap laptops. Classmate has 5 times shorter battery life, double or triple the manufacturing price.

    Given all these facts, I believe Nicholas Negroponte has been really polite not to tell more of the disgusting ways Intel’s salespeople in Nigeria, Mongolia, Peru, Mexico, Pakistan, India, Libya and so many other countries have been doing non other than telling blatant lies to trash the OLPC project and that Intel has given those sales people all means to attack the OLPC effort in any way possible. Threatening to remove existing investment projects such as the ones mentionned by Paul Otellini was most probably one of the dirty tactics used (just look at the facts, how much Intel say the plan to invest and have invested in Indian and Pakistani ICT, presents given to Nigerian ICT, personal level friendships and promise of free teacher training in Microsoft Excell spreadsheet software in cooperation with Mexicos presidents. Intel has been using all of its connections to undermine the OLPC project.

    By Charbax | Comments (1)

    Intel-powered XO is too expensive and consumes too much power

    January 4, 2008 – 3:15 am

    2 days before Intel CEO Paul Otellini would unveil the Classmate 2 or the Intel-powered XO at the CES, Intel announced that they are quitting the OLPC board.

    Intel claims that they are quitting because of Nicholas Negroponte wanting them to stop the promotion of the Classmate/Eee to education in third world countries, but I think that the real reason is that Intel does not have a good enough processor for the OLPC project to use as an alternative to the AMD Geode LX-700. Intel has not been able to develop a processor to match the price, power consumption and performance requirements of the OLPC project. Paul Otellini could have looked like a fool at the CES if he had to unveil an Intel powered XO that was performing worse in terms of price and power consumption compared to the AMD powered one.

    Intel executives probably have seen the OLPC project more as a threat than as an opportunity to their core business from day one. Intel probably wants to do whatever they can to stop the development of cheap laptop alternatives using cheaper fanless AMD processors and even ARM based processors in the future (XO-2, XO-3…), which is a direct threat to Intel’s market-dominating X86 standard.

    I think that Intel did not achieve or want to achieve any of these technological and pricing advancements in an Intel-powered XO and thus in fear of being ridiculed at CES with a more expensive Intel-powered XO with shorter battery life, Intel, as a last resort, decided to quit OLPC and blame it on Nicholas Negroponte.

    Intel might think it is a superior technology provider and that it can simply continue to market its Intel powered education laptop against the OLPC project. Intel probably feels too unconfortable with the prospect of supporting the development of cheap low powered laptops by being a member of the OLPC board. I think that Intel sees those cheap XO laptops as potentially becoming huge devastating disruptors to the established expensive laptop business in the developped nations. A commercial XO could replace all laptops in the business productivity, educational, personal and entertainment sectors of the PC and laptop business, which is the reason Mary-Lou Jepsen, OLPC’s previous CTO, is working on her new business to commercialise XO technology in the coming weeks and months.

    When will we hear of the first commercial cheap laptop projects using many or most of the OLPC XO open-source technologies? Quanta’s ex-CEO talked about Quanta producing a commercial version of the XO many months ago. I think that any company with an interest in indroducing low margin, large volume, low cost, low power laptops, could most probably come in, approach Mary-Lou Jepsen and the OLPC for access to using the open-source hardware and software of the project for commercial projects. And this could lead any of WalMart, Dell, Medion-Aldi, Google, AMD, Amazon and IBM to introduce commercial $200 laptops in the near future, all running optimized and free versions of Linux.

    Would the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation not be criticised for working against the work of the Red Cross to bringing vaccinations and food to starving and sick populations? Why would anyone want to compete with a non-profit open-source project like OLPC? I have been asking those questions to Intel ever since I filmed an Intel representative at the WCIT in May of 2006 when they first introduced the Classmate PC.

    If anyone has a better technology to decrease the price, improve the battery life, improve the e-book screen readabillity, improve the flash/divx video playback performance or improve the connectivity with WiMax, cellular, satellite or other technologies, then logically that entity currently simply can contribute that new technology into the open-source development for the XO-2 by simply contacting OLPC, posting on their Wiki, making press announcements and talking about their newer, better technologies to bloggers and to the media. I think that Intel doesn’t want to share it’s R&D, distribution network, design ideas and proprietary technologies with a non-profit like OLPC. I think that Intel hates the open-source hardware/software/distribution revolution.

    By Charbax | Comments (8)

    Intel has done everything to slow down AMD powered OLPC mass production

    November 24, 2007 – 1:49 pm

    Intel’s agreement with the OLPC Foundation included a “non disparagement” clause, under which Intel and One Laptop promised not to criticize each other, according to Nicholas Negroponte in the latest article in the Wall Street Journal.

    Still Intel tactics has violated that repeatedly to kill OLPC efforts in Nigeria, Libya, Pakistan, India, China and Intel is also still trying to pull those tactics in Mexico, Brazil.

    This is simply disgracefull of Intel, scandalous. But Negroponte has signed an agreement saying that he is not allowed to criticize Intel, so he is not allowed to talk about these shameless tactics even though Intel is the one violating the agreement. So only independant voices on the Internet can get those messages of truth out about Intels tactics.

    In Nigeria, Intel came and donated 3000 laptops to counter OLPC efforts, then sells 17 thousand Classmates to Nigeria at a loss. Then Microsoft corrupted Nigerian officials with 400 thousand dollars to install Windows XP on those instead of Mandriva Linux.

    Anyways, the next step will be that Intel is investing hundreds of millions to develop the Diamondville x86 processor that is the Intel version of a fanless, low cost, low power processor, and alternative to the AMD Geode.

    So the next step is there will have to be an Intel powered XO laptop ready for mass production. Otherwise it simply seems Intel will not allow OLPC to start the mass production. So possibly some deal will be done between OLPC, Intel and AMD, so that 50% be built with AMD processors and 50% with Intel processors. Hopefully Intel executives will let it mass produce and mass distribute with that sort of agreement.

    Thankfully CMO, Quanta, AMD and all other involved have accepted to delay the up ramping of mass production, they are complying to Intel’s shameless behavior of delaying the OLPC project, since only 300 thousand AMD powered OLPC XO laptops are being produced in the first few months in Quanta’s factories. But at any time in the beginning of next year, mass production could reach a volume of over a million laptops per month.

    The question is will Intel allow OLPC to start ramping up mass production to its maximum production capacity of exclusively the AMD powered version even though the Intel Diamondville integration might not be completely ready before the middle to second half of next year? Will Intel agree to stop selling its inferior and more expensive ULV powered Classmate PC? Will Intel tell Asus to stop marketing the current ULV powered version of the Asus Eee as an OLPC competitor?

    By Charbax | Also posted in Consumer Electronics | Comments (2)

    OLPC sells 100 thousand OLPC XO laptops in 10 days through the Give 1 Get 1 program

    November 22, 2007 – 5:30 pm

    With an average revenue of $2 million per day for the Give 1 Get 1 program, that is 100 thousand XO-1 laptops sold in 10 days. Half of these are going to developing nations.

    The OLPC Foundation is extending the Give 1 Get 1 program until the 31st of December.

    Source is: http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20071122005019&newsLang=en

    By Charbax | Comments (0)

    One day Microsoft will open-source Windows XP

    November 3, 2007 – 1:42 am

    I think it’s great that Microsoft is investing millions of dollars in making a thin version of Windows XP for the XO-1 laptop. That is just really great of Microsoft.

    What is really sad, is that Nigeria and Libya are getting relatively low volumes of bloated Classmate laptops. They chose to get a few tens of thousands of bloated Classmate laptops instead of going for the much more sustainable and future proof XO design.

    All in terms of power consumption, usabillity, wireless, screen readabillity, software optimization for unbloatedness (both Linux Sugar and whatever “XP Lite” that Microsoft can do).

    Classmate and Eee on the other hand are nothing else then totally regular laptops with the regular unoptimized structure of a bloatware-laptop with a totally conventionnal DVD player 7″ LCD and Flash memory instead of the HDD. On top of that there is no way Classmate and Eee are going to be sold at $200 in quantities of millions. Intel is working on a AMD Geode alternative, and that is GREAT and I hope Intel and AMD push the limits of low power and cheap price for a X86 processor, but Intel should really not insist with the ULV based Classmate and Eee.

    So what for Intel if they are not part of XO-1, Intel can be part of XO-2 and can “catch up” within the next few months with Menlow and Diamondville.

    But the basic thing is will Intel and others in the PC industry such as Asus and Dell stop thinking they should keep PCs and Laptops expensive and bloated forever. The cheap laptop revolution cannot be stopped now, this society is too open for that to happen now. So Intel should stop delaying OLPC, cause every day that goes by, millions of kids are missing out on being part of the information society and learning about everything.

    Actually I do think Microsoft will open-source Windows XP at some point within the next couple of years at one point or another and give licences for it away for free, and that will be cool. At least there will be no other way for Microsoft to compete with Linux for cheap laptops.

    Microsoft will keep Vista closed and expensive, but XP should become open and free.

    That would bring so much good PR to Microsoft and they can still invest in Vista for business and for the expensive laptops and PCs, Microsoft has to get onto other businesses such as online applications, online advertising, video games, portable and wearable computers.

    By Charbax | Also posted in Consumer Electronics | Comments (4)

    The cheap computer revolution is on its way

    October 25, 2007 – 8:49 pm

    The One Laptop Per Child is the most awesome technological revolution in the works and its mass production is just about to start in China.

    There is the Buy 1, Get 1 program and the Give Many programs that are also just about to launch while OLPC will deliver the laptops in priority to Uruguay, Peru and other countries that have confirmed orders for large quantities of it. The goal being that as many children as possible should get laptops as soon as possible.

    Jepsen says it’s true, as the story suggested, that final assembly of the first batch of mass-produced laptop—to begin soon at a recently expanded Quanta Computer factory in Changshu, northwest of Shanghai—was originally envisioned to begin in October, and will now start sometime in November. But neither the One Laptop organization nor Quanta ever claimed that production would be begin on a set day—so it’s a stretch to call the situation a “production delay.” Says Jepsen, “I think we had hoped to start mass production in October, but we were never focused on starting on a certain date. We’ve always just wanted to make the product as good as we can…I am certainly not aware of any promises that we are going to miss.”

    And while Jepsen says she’s happy that audiences are so interested in the details of the One Laptop project, she points out that the One Laptop organization doesn’t work like a traditional manufacturing company, with detailed business plans or Gantt charts showing the dependencies between each part of the project. “It’s much looser and more collaborative, kind of in the spirit of the open-source movement—and yet I’ve never worked at a company where things have come together more smoothly,” she says. “Everyone thought this was impossible three years ago.”

    (…)

    “What is mass production, anyway?” asks Jepsen. “Is it when you put together the motherboards, or is it when the operators on the line screw together the plastic parts on a conveyor belt? You can say that that’s when it really becomes a laptop—but we designed it so that five-year-old kids in Nigeria can screw it together. In a way, the work is already largely done.” Jepsen points out that Quanta, the world’s largest laptop manufacturer, recently doubled the size of its Changshu manufacturing plant so that it could begin production of the XO-1, which will be the first product off the new lines.

    Jepsen says she was surprised by the complaining tone that spread across the blogosphere yesterday in response to the Reuters story about the supposed delays. “On some level I’d just like to say to everyone, ‘Chill,’” she says. “But on the other hand, it’s clear that people are really interested in the process, and in learning about how a laptop is manufactured.”

    Source: http://xconomy.com/2007/10/25/one-laptop-organization-to-world-chill/

    By Charbax | Also posted in Consumer Electronics | Comments (0)

    Intel and the OLPC future of computing

    July 16, 2007 – 6:54 am

    I’d like to hope that Intel will have a very positive attitude with OLPC going forward. Firstly not to “compete” XO-1 by dumping low volume of Classmate-1. And not dumping EEE-1 in low volumes eigther.

    Intel should contribute competing with AMD towards the low power fanless CPU for XO-2, there should be an even lower power CPU than LX-700, with DCON, instant-resume and all perticular innovative and extremely usefull technologies of OLPC integrated, which are not integrated in anyway in Classmate-1/EEE-1. LX-700 type of processor could run Windows XP, so there isn’t an argument for more power unless it can be made for cheaper and by lower power consumption.

    Then Intel could provide cheap low power Mobile 802.16e WiMax for XO-2, if they can develop a WiMax Mesh network technology, a low-power WiMax chip that has its own ultra-low power CPU and memory just as the Marvell WiFi Mesh chip of the XO-1. Then it should be researched if WiMax can replace WiFi or if it should be a secondary wireless access to add.

    Intel has dozens of other cool things to contribute, but always keeping in mind that the price of XO should decrease towards $50 by 2009.

    The High-K/Metal Gate Research and Development, the multiple-cores, the built-in graphics acceleration, lots of other things Intel has knowledge and ressources to make, it should be evaluated which of these technologies can be contributed to lowering the cost and lowering the power consumption.

    I believe there are enough people on this planet for all kinds of computers. There will still be alot of people who need to encode videos faster, play new 3D games, process graphics and animations, those people will continue to need the expensive computers. And then there is an enormous untapped market in the developping and in the western world for people who will need very low cost and very low power computers. It’s inevitable now, the upwards spiral in price/power consumption is not applicable any longer. So Intel is welcome to be part of that kind of future, it’s gonna be a fun for everyone, with low margins and large volumes.

    By Charbax | Comments (1)

    OLPC and Intel partnership

    July 13, 2007 – 11:37 pm

    Finally, Intel joins the One Laptop Per Child project.

    XO-1 will start mass production as planned this September or October and will use AMD Geode LX-700 chips as planned.

    The first generation school servers that will be shipped to schools using the XO-1 will use Intel chips.

    This is what I think we can expect Intel could provide to the OLPC project:

    - Contribute large amounts of R&D to make the successor to the LX-700, it should consume even less power while providing as reliable or more reliable x86 processing.

    - XO-2 should integrate DCON better (the technology that can refresh the image on the screen while suspending the main processor most of the time when it’s not needded)

    - XO-2 should add low power Mobile WiMax 802.16e as a second wireless technology in the laptop with the WiFi Mesh 802.11s. Unless Mobile WiMax can be made to work in ad-hoc mode as a Mesh thus it could replace WiFi. Intel is said to be very much invested in Mobile WiMax technology. Mobile WiMax in the 700mhz UHF band might be the best solution, and a deployment using the FON flowerbox model would provide free wireless broadband blanketing very quickly and very cheaply for whole countries.

    - XO-2 should optimize suspend and resume even more, make it faster, better and more reliable.

    - Find a way to add E-Ink technology to the laptop for better readabillity and lower power consumption in e-book mode, possibly as a second rollable screen that can be pulled over the LCD.

    - Work towards commercializing OLPC technology in the whole world. Profit made by commercializing OLPC technologies should be used by the OLPC foundation towards lowering the price of the XO-1, XO-2 and XO-3. A result of this might be that we will all be able to buy $200 laptops soon running Linux, lasting 20 hours on a battery, being sunlight readable, integrating Mobile WiMax and WiFi Mesh, providing instant-resume and running the main processor without a fan. It is everyone in the world who needs to use the OLPC technology for lower power computing in terms of protecting the environment.

    By Charbax | Comments (0)

    Håkon Wium Lie, CTO of Opera, Interview about the OLPC

    June 1, 2007 – 3:09 pm

    DivX HD: Play, Download

    Free at video sites:

    play - popup - link - source

    I also posted this to http://olpc.tv/2007/06/01/opera-browser-and-ogg-theora-in-html5-specs/

    By Charbax | Also posted in Reboot, Videos | Comments (7)